Singin' & Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas

A memoir about motherhood and music from the bestselling author of I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS

'A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' BARACK OBAMA

Maya Angelou's seven volumes of autobiography are a testament to the talents and resilience of this extraordinary writer. Loving the world, she also knows its cruelty. As a black woman she has known discrimination and extreme poverty, but also hope, joy, achievement and celebration.

In her third marvellous volume, music and her son are the focus of Maya Angelou's life. She is on the edge of a new world: marriage, show business and a triumphant tour of Porgy and Bess.

'She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace . . . She will always be the rainbow in my clouds' OPRAH WINFREY

'She was important in so many ways. She launched African American women writing in the United States. She was generous to a fault. She had nineteen talents - used ten. And was a real original. There is no duplicate' TONI MORRISON

A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman
The poems and stories she wrote . . . were gifts of wisdom and wit, courage and grace
She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace . . . She will always be the rainbow in my clouds
She was important in so many ways. She launched African American women writing in the United States. She was generous to a fault. She had nineteen talents - used ten. And was a real original. There is no duplicate
Once again the reader must marvel at this gifted woman's spirit and resistance and applaud the gusto with which she recaptures a past that has been plagued by indignities as often as it has been blessed by love Observer
Maya Angelou is an inspiration Independent on Sunday
She sees everything with an eye full of relish Guardian

Maya Angelou was one of the world's most important writers and activists. Born 4 April 1928, she lived and chronicled an extraordinary life: rising from poverty, violence and racism, she became a renowned author, memoirist, poet, playwright, civil rights' activist - working with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. She wrote and performed a poem, 'On the Pulse of Morning', for President Clinton on his inauguration. She was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama and was honoured by more than seventy universities throughout the world.

She first thrilled the world with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969). This was followed by six volumes of autobiography, the seventh and final volume, Mom & Me & Mom, published in 2013. She wrote three collections of essays; many volumes of poetry, including His Day is Done, a tribute to Nelson Mandela; and two cookbooks. She had a lifetime appointment as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University of North Carolina. She died in 2014.

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